What’s the Best Kombucha to Use for SCOBY-Growing?

The Winner! The Best Kombucha for Growing Kombucha Tea SCOBYs

The goal was to see if the quality of SCOBY differed when using different kombuchas. I’m judging “quality” here by the rate the SCOBY grows, its thickness and solidity and, later, its ability to make a tasty new brew in a reasonable period of time.

My main intent was to compare home-brew to store-bought in order to help people who want to grow their own SCOBYs at home make the best choice when obtaining starter kombucha.

So, I started by growing SCOBYs from kombucha, with no actual SCOBY bits in the mix (I had to strain my home-brew to ensure this, but the store-bought kombucha was not strained.

Going into this, my hypothesis was that my home-brew would surpass the others by a lot, and that the unflavored option would be the next best of the store-bought booch. I was right on one count and wrong on the other.

My home-brew kicked ass. Like not even close. No competition. With the naked eye, it was pretty clear by Day 2 that there was a superior brew on the table and it was mine. the take-away here is that if you have access to kombucha brewed by a friend who somehow doesn’t have a spare SCOBY, use that over store-bought.

My second supposition, that the unflavored option (Ciara’s) would take the silver medal proved quite false.

Here are the 3 brands I used, to the left of the jars the SCOBYs were grown in.

The Results of SCOBY vs. SCOBY Growing Competition

1st Place – Phickle’s Homemade Kombucha Tea: Produced a viable SCOBY in a week. More than twice as thick as the next thickest SCOBY and the color of the SCOBY and the smell of the brew were very “kombucha-y”. The SCOBY effectively reproduced kombucha in the normal window. It was sweet but drinkable after 5 days.

2nd Place – GT’s Synergy Strawberry Serenity – This wasn’t a great kombucha SCOBY, but it beat out the other two store-bought options by a lot. It never got thicker than a sliver, and a lot of the SCOBY was definitely composed of bits of what looked like strawberry seed and perhaps pulp and pectin from the strawberry juice that was added. It took quite a while to rebrew this into viable kombucha, but it did it.

You can see that this SCOBY is much thicker around the edges. When you look closely, you see that at least some of that bulk around the edge is from strawberry seed bits and maybe pulp/pectin.

3rd Place – Ciara’s Plain Kombucha – I was not familiar with this brand before purchasing, but since it was the only plain kombucha on offer that day (see above), I wanted it in my test. It produced a very thin SCOBY that did a poor job of making new kombucha. Since the SCOBY was so weak, I did a very small batch of kombucha to ensure that the acidity was low enough. This actually never produced anything very kombucha smelling, but the pH did drop to acceptable levels, so I’m saying that it did make kombucha.

Last Place – GT’s Enlightened Multi-Green – Even after 3 weeks, this produced just a small pile of break-apart slime. Not a great choice if you ever want to grow your own. This was a whisper of a SCOBY that fell apart the second I pulled it out of the jar. No go on the Multi-Green.

So, what conclusions can we draw from this? Well, not many, because it’s not science. But I would nonetheless, say that if you have access to a local brand of booch or a friends kombucha liquid, use that first!

This Isn’t Kombucha Science*

Here’s what science is: It is replicable and replicated. It is rigorous and methodical. It is best conducted by unbiased people (whether or not they wear lab coats and have degrees and fancy equipment) who like to pay close and careful attention to detail.

I like to play fast and loose with detail, which is why I’m a home-fermenter in first place (and not, say, a canner or a baker). Furthermore, any rigorousness I may have wanted to employ lost out to me not caring to spend any more money on store-bought kombucha than I had to, when I had/have my own, far superior (See? That’s objectivity, folks!) booch at home. So I just grabbed the 3 most different kombuchas that Whole Foods had in stock at the moment I happened to be there.

However, I would totally encourage any of you to replicate this and report your results. With a I may do a repeat in the summer to see if temperature changes the game, but I would be surprised if it did change the ranking in any way.

Limitations of this test

Things I totally ignored in my methodology – I did not research what, if anything, has been scientifically proven about the quality/strength of a SCOBY based on it’s thickness and physical appearance. This is because I have practical experience with cultures from all over that place that tells me the best brew (flavor, kombucha-ness, acidity, speed) comes from a nice, reasonably thick, sturdy SCOBY.

Local Kombucha Brands – I would guess that local brands in your community are selling the real deal and would provide excellent sources for SCOBY growing booch, but I didn’t purchase any local brands or try it with them.

Other flavors of kombucha to see how each flavor impacted SCOBY growth – I would totally consider this for another installation of Nearly Science, but my budget for such things is limited. Based on my conversations with GT on this topic, they would likely recommend the mango madness if the strawberry serenity isn’t a possibility, since it will also have higher sugar content.

*And neither, frankly, is so much of the fear-mongering “experimentation” that masquerades as fermentation citizen science on the internet.

Comments

GT’s plain makes a wonderful scoby. I’m not sure why anyone would even try the flavored ones to grow a scoby, except out of desperation. Best results from adding the bottle to a cooled fresh batch of organic sweet tea.

My experiences have differed from yours. I had a conversation with a customer service rep at GT, and even GT he didn’t claim that their kombucha made a great SCOBY straight out of the bottle. More on that next week, though, along with a follow-up experiment that included plain GT.

Thanks, Kelly! I’m a little sensitive about not saying things are science that aren’t, but I definitely do think this type of n=1 test can be helpful if you’re standing in the grocery aisle wondering which kombucha to use!

Well! If this isn’t the most conveniently-timed post ever! 😀 I was going to wait till April, but two weeks ago a friend was going to the health food store so I asked her to get me two bottles, one plain if she could, but it not, whatever. She got me two Synergy: one a ginger flavor, and the other was Strawberry Serenity! I decided to drink the ginger one, since it “felt” more seasonal. I used one cup of the strawberry with two teaspoons of white sugar hoping to make a SCOBY. It’s hard to see it well – I put it almost too far away from everything – but I think it looks like your trial with the Strawberry Serenity; it’s a week and a half now. I plan to make the tea on Monday and see how things go. And, I’m going to have to use more of the same flavor to make it, because that’s what I’ve got. I’m enjoying this whole thing, I can tell you!

Okay – I made sweet tea this morning, a small batch: three cups water with a quarter cup sugar and one Salada teabag, which looked like at least a half tablespoon of tea was in it. A few minutes ago it was feeling tepid, so I put a half cup of (ice cold) kombucha (Strawberry Serenity!) in a clean jar, and added the tea, I strained the other stuff with my plastic colander, and lo! that SCOBY looked way better than I had dared to expect. It is sturdy looking, with an even thickness of about 18″. I realize that using flavored kombucha as a starter is a no-no, but that’s what I have here, and I’d rather try it and fail and learn something, than wait till I have some plain. 🙂 I am psyched! Thank you for your clear instructions, Amanda!

I love reading your blog. I’ve dabbled with various ferments, but have had little success with Kumbucha from a dehydrated SCOBY. I can’t seem to find a local source. I live in Savannah, TN, can you recommend a resource for me to get a good SCOBY?

If you want to pay, Kombucha Brooklyn SCOBYs have been my favorite I’ve tried so far. If you don’t want to pay (or don’t want to pay much) try looking on the Fermenter’s Kitchen Facebook page. Check in the notes section (only available in the desktop version, I believe) for a note on culture sharing. Many users there will ship SCOBYs just for the cost of shipping, or someone may even be in your area. It’s a great way to meet potential fermenting friends in your area!

Thank you for this post!!!
I’m in Australia and used a flavoured booch (can’t remember which brand). It took weeks to form a slimy film that is very thin but at least holds together.
I think that I’ll head off to the store and try and find another brand and try again because the SCOBY that I have been using works but it takes a couple of weeks before it’s kombucha’y enough to really enjoy, but that may also be because I started the whole thing off during autumn and through winter.
Spring time here we come. 🙂

When you say that the 2nd place winner took many batches to make it into a more solid scoby, do you mean just making regular batches with it until it gained some weight? I imagine that it would have taken a bit longer than a normal batch would, but eventually you would have gotten kombucha from it. How many times did you have to ferment with it to get it to what you would consider a normal thickness? I ask b/c I have been eager to start my own batch lately and all I could find when I went to get some kombucha from the store was flavoured kinds. I ended up starting the process anyway to see what happens and it is currently in my pantry with a reminder in my phone to check it in 7 days. I was happy to see that this article gives me some hope (as every other article or youtube vid I’ve seen firmly advises against it – I’m hard headed and desperate obviously).

Hi. Than k you for this post. I am new to this blog and to the world of Kombucha making. I recenbtly did something similar to this experiment. I bought two bottles of store bought Kombucha (one plain and one ginger flavoured) and tried growing a SCOBY from both. After 2 weeks i have a thin but sturdy looking brownish yellow film on he 1.8 litre jar where I added sweet tea and half the bottle of ginger kombucha and on the smaller jar where i added sweet tea and the raw kombucha there is absolutely nothing. Also, on the one with the developing film at the top, there also seems to be quite a lot of sediment at the bottom of the jar, it almost looks like there might be another SCOBY developing there, or at least a lot of loose mother material.
I have always read that we should never try to grow a SCOBY from flavoured kombucha but no article I have read explains the reasons why. Do you happen to know why it is not advised? Do you think I can use this developing SCOBY to make Kombucha straight away or should I leave it there maybe another week or two for it to develop further? And could the first batch I make after this be drunk already or should I brew a few batches first?
Thanks again for your time and help.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the ginger kombucha I used already had quite a bit of mother in it and it had a pretty strong, acidy flavour and smell to it, which is why I chose to use that. It also smelled smilar to when I have made rejuvelac in the past, which is another fermented drink, so I thought it had some promis. Oh, and I am writing from Spain 🙂

It’s not advised because it has the possibility to interfere with the microbiota of the SCOBY. I don’t know if that actually happens, and if it does happen is it for better or for worse, but it does make sense that a particular SCOBY will react differently to a different food source. In my own experiment a flavored product performed better.

The stuff on the bottom is not likely to be a SCOBY. SCOBYs need air to form and function (that’s why you don’t close your jar, but cover it with a cloth instead), so new SCOBYs will always form on the surface, the stuff at the bottom is generally excess yeast from the fermentation process.

If your SCOBY looks thick enough, go crazy! Get started on your next batch. I would use the tea from this batch to make your next. You can drink the next batch.

Thanks so much for your help. I think it looks thick enough, but I think I’ll let it sit for another week to see if it gets a bit stronger. I made it in a 1.8 litre jar, so it is quite wide in extension. Maybe if I’d done it in a smaller jar first it might be thicker by now. ANyhow, I will give it a go and see what happens. I’ll keep you posted 🙂 Cheers

Hi All, interesting reading. I made 2 scobys in 9 days, 1 with the Strawberry Serenity, and one with the Gt original raw. They are both about 1/8th inch thick. The strawberry kambucha scoby looks prettier than the raw one. But im gonna use them both!

Before I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes I made Kombuch by the gallons. I bought the scoby’s via internet–as time passed my mothers all went away and I stopped. One day I bought a bottle similar to the ones pictured. Brewing my black tea then poured in the complete bottle of unflavored, covered and waited. Yikes! These things began to grow. In about three weeks time the scobys would be 1/2 inch thick. I learned I was pre-diabetic and ceased brewing, but keep my scobies growing. The grow big. I refresh about once every six to eight weeks, just dumping tea in with lots of sugar. These things just gobble. I have two 1//2 gallon containers and each have four mothers each. When I refresh I will usually get rid of the bottom mother and another grows to take its place. I will brew again soon as I have recently learned that the carbohydrates in 16 ounces of kombucha is about 5 grams. If I let it get more sour I can, I presume, even lower the carbohydrate count.
I grow them just for fun, and activity something like gardening.

Not sure on the timing, but in the old days, commercial kombucha was brewed like homebrew. After the raid, larger producers (and many smaller) had to adjust the microbial content to limit alcohol. I believe this also produces inferior SCOBYs (you can still grow better future generations from a meh SCOBY sometimes). As I said, though, this is an n=1. Not irrefutable, replicated science.